There’s nothing worse than finding that your air conditioner isn’t working well enough in hot summer days. AC units often refuse to work well when owners fail to take care of them during winters. Even though AC units are designed to place outdoors, they still need proper attention to prevent from inclement elements. Winterizing your HVAC unit takes less time than you’d think.
Why it’s important to winterize your AC Unit?
Your HVAC unit— keeps your home dry and cool during hot, humid months. As the warm summer days fade to chilly weather, it’s time to winterize the HVAC unit to safeguard against snow and ice. Throughout the winter – water, snow, and debris can gather around your AC unit and can clog, rust, and deteriorate mechanical parts of AC from inside. Moreover, critters can make a nest inside the AC unit. To keep them protected from inclement elements, it’s necessary to winterize your AC unit every year.
Tips To Winterize Your AC Unit
Air conditioners are expensive, and you want them to last as long as possible. If you ignore your AC unit all winter, you might need to make costly repairs – or worse, replace your entire unit – when next summer rolls around. To keep your AC unit protected, follow these steps before the weather gets too cold.
#1. Turn of the power – The first thing you need to do with your AC unit is to shut its power down. Turn off the switch to shut down your unit. Typically, the switch is located under a metal or plastic lid. Flip the switch to the off position. This prevents the AC unit from turning on during a warm winter day, keeping water out of the unit that could freeze overnight and damage your HVAC unit.
#2. Clean your unit – Throughout the summer, your unit collects dirt and dust around it. Clean off all the gunk with a wet clean cloth. Dispose of any sticks and leaves that you find near the AC unit as they tend to encourage small animals to burrow in units over the winter. We are sure insects, birds, or small animals nibbling up your wires during the off-season is the last thing you want.
Let your AC unit gets completely dry before moving to the next step of the winterizing process.
#3. Cover it properly – Cover the HVAC unit with a waterproof (plastic or vinyl) cover. Before you wrap your AC unit, ensure that it’s completely dry. You can also use a tarp to cover your HVAC unit. Just be sure that tarp is big enough to cover the entire unit. Secure the cover with bungee cords or vinyl rope so that it withstand strong winds.
#4. Insulate the pipes – Covering the AC unit is not enough. You need to cover the pipes of your AC unit too. If you don’t cover pipes properly, they can freeze and burst when the temperature drops. Make sure that you don’t skip this step. To protect AC unit pipes, cover them with foam pipe covers. The next thing to keep in mind is that the foam cover should fit snuggly around the pipe. You can use duct tape to keep foam cover in place. It’s safe to keep the foam covers around your pipes year-round. In this way, you won’t have to repeat this step every year.
#5. Keep an eye on the unit throughout the winter – Covering the pipes and entire AC unit doesn’t mean that your job is done here. You’ll still need to keep an eye on your AC unit throughout the winter. Inspect your air conditioner every couple of weeks – and every time you experience bad weather.
Brush off any snow, ice, water, and debris that may have collected on top of the cover. Try to keep all animals away from the area. If you find that your cover has moved from its place, adjust it appropriately so that it continues to protect your air conditioner.
Best time to winterize your AC units
The best time to prep your HVAC unit is early fall, just before you close the windows and turn on the heat. Watch the weather and choose a sunny day to winterize your AC.
Instant-Air always recommends you follow these steps to winterize your AC. When it comes to HVAC maintenance, we recommend you to follow HVAC manufacturer’s suggestions. If you are doing everything the manufacturer recommends, your home warranty coverage will usually pay to repair or replace your unit if it fails from normal wear and tears.
However, if your HVAC system is making a lot of noise or not working efficiently and you need a fast and reliable HVAC maintenance service in Southern New Jersey, contact us or book your appointment with us today!